Despite its location at an important crossroads along the U.S.-Mexico border, residents in the Sonoran town of Sonoyta say they’re often overlooked. Now, facing the increasingly deadly consequences of a faltering health system during the coronavirus pandemic, some residents have started a movement for social justice.

A year ago, a gunman killed 23 people at an El Paso Walmart. Eight Mexican citizens were among the dead, and 8 others were wounded, targeted by ethnicity. The Mexican government plans to create an institute to pay tribute to the victims.

Officials in neighboring Sonora, Mexico are launching a new stimulus program to promote arts and culture during the pandemic. The funds will be distributed through a series of arts contests.

The coronavirus pandemic poses a devastating threat to smaller tribes. That very real possibility is on minds of tribal and state leadership across the country. The small tribes in Yuma County say with consistent messaging and a prepared health facility they have so far avoided the worst of it.

Four casinos operated by the Navajo Nation will remain closed through at least Aug. 16. Even though they’ve been closed since March, the casinos had been using cash reserves to pay employees. Now more than 1,000 are facing layoffs and furloughs.

The coronavirus pandemic is bringing with it a severe, historic downfall in the world’s economy. Mexico is no exception, but its currency, the peso, has become stronger.

Visitors to the beach town of Rocky Point in neighboring Sonora, Mexico, will finally be able to get back in the water Saturday, Aug. 1, as the town reopens beaches for the first time in more than four months.

In what they are calling historic litigation, family members of nine women and children slain in an attack by suspected drug cartel members in northern Mexico last November have filed a lawsuit against the cartel, arguing the cartel is an international terrorist organization.

Five years ago an EPA crew investigating a mine in Colorado accidentally unleashed 3 million gallons of metal-contaminated waste into the southwest river system. Downstream hundreds of Navajo quit farming as a result. But that’s changed in recent months as the tribe became one of the hardest hit by the coronavirus.